About Isaiah 50:4 Blues

I could write a whole long story behind that cross, but the short version is this:

There are two verses etched on plates behind the bars of that crucifix I wear on Sundays and sundry other days. The horizontal says ISAIAH 50:4.

“The Lord God has given Me the tongue of disciples, That I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.”–Isaiah 50:4 NASB

Words are powerful in the ear and on the tongue. You’ve heard them before. Some wound and bring death; others heal and bring Life to your life. I pray the latter happens for you here, too, now and then.

When the wrong word lands in your ear, you’ll be crass cussing and fierce fighting in a heartbeat. Another word sent aloft falls soft as an eyelash on your earlobe. It’ll settle in lightly, nestling mostly unnoticed. Still this whisper lifts hidden hopes up easy as a tuft of cottonwood seed on the wind. The Lord alone knows where that Word might go and bring life?

Words reveal hidden gifts. Words give insight into depths of another’s person’s mind, heart and soul. They are light in that darkness. Crossing cultures, continents and centuries, the Word will traverse time and space to inspire, to reach out and teach us now a wisdom unlearned, left behind or thought lost. You might be weary of all that. Still, maybe I know a Word apt to nourish even someone like you.

A certain Word was sealed on my head with some water. By that Word, the Lord cleansed and claimed my own ear and tongue, along with the whole rest of me. My brain’s been washed, you might say. It badly needed that good washing, trust me. Still, it does. You’ll see some of my worst here too. Yet my conscience welcomes its cleansing in Christ, these days. And that hasn’t always been the case.

Ears made eager to hear most everything, from Him and from you. A tongue has been taught how to speak, when best not to speak. Maybe, I’m a little more disciplined? I’ve been discipled, you might say. That’s the Lord’s doing over time, and not mine. So here we are.

The vertical plate on my cross? It reads 2 CORIN. 13:5.

“Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?”

By God’s grace alone, I’ve come to believe He works in my living now with you. Mine His ear. Mine His tongue, blood-bought, tamed and given a Word that sustains weary souls.

Now you know, Kind Reader, some of what Isaiah504blues.com intends to be about. Thanks for listening.